‘Fantastic Four’ Rumor Buster: Fox Has Fired the Director, Ditched the Script and Wants to Recast the Movie?

UPDATE: For what it's worth, we spoke to some high-level studio sources who flatly denied the below report and stated it's "not at all" true. Filming is still scheduled to begin on April 21 and Trank himself is on set right now.

The 'Fantastic Four' movie has not been without its hiccups, but few superhero movies are. We didn't think much of the troubles and when the cast was finally announced - Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell - we assumed it would be a fairly smooth ride to the start of production this summer. But, according to a shocking new report, Fox is looking to reboot it's reboot: they reportedly have fired director Josh Trank, thrown out the existing script and are looking to recast the movie.

Bleeding Cool, who've had their share of success breaking superhero news, is reporting that a "well-connected source" tells them that just a few months before filming was set to begin on 'Fantastic Four,' Fox is planning some radical changes. Apparently unhappy with how pre-production was going, the site reports that both Trank and the script he developed with Simon Kinberg are both out. This is in addition to "casting issues" that could lead to some, or all, of the announced cast being replaced.

The last we heard, the four main actors hadn't yet closed deals to star in 'Fantastic Four' and were in final negotiations. That would mean that, while unorthodox, Fox could potentially cut any one of them loose with little-to-no financial repercussions. It's unclear whether Trank or Kinberg had pay-or-play deals, but whatever issue may have led to their departure seems to have been worth whatever financial burden Fox would be responsible for.

Of course, at this point, there is no confirmation that Trank is out and only this report. Trank, who at one point was active on Twitter, denying online rumors about the film, has deleted his account.

We have reached out to Fox for comment and have not yet heard back.

'Fantastic Four' had been scheduled to hit theaters on March 6, 2015. If this report is true, it very much puts that release date in jeopardy.